I want to have a pair of 2 way radios. I purchased the yellow Motorola radios from REI and they are totally unreliable. One transmits and the other doesn't. The on/ of button is unreliable, it seems to switch on while being carried around in the pack, then on summit day it is dead. What is a serious radio that I can buy?

We bought some Motorola TA280 SLK's maybe 10 years ago. Last year when I took a son and some nephews up Virginia Peak I dusted them off, replaced the batteries and took them along - I was surprised how well they worked. The boys decided to run the last few miles out (oh, to be 20 again!) and we could still talk clearly more than two miles away, through the woods deep in Green Canyon. Maybe you could pick up some used ones on eBay -